Leerthieka: I learnt that if I worked hard, I could achieve anything I wanted.
TEN-year-old Leerthieka Desanan is not content with learning the English language only in her classroom.
Outside of schooling hours, she takes it upon herself to improve her proficiency through various means.
Her effort paid off when she emerged one of the “gold winners” at the Eurasian Spelling Bee 2022 held in Poland.
Aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the competition required contestants aged six to 19 to correct misspelt words, identify and spell words, listen to audio and fill in correct words, brainstorm words that began and ended with certain letters, and take an oral spelling test.
“When the silver winners were announced and my name was not on the list, my parents told me it’s ok if I didn’t win and that I could always try again.
“I started crying, thinking that I had lost. However, when my name was announced as the gold winner, I broke into happy tears!” the SK Bandar Tun Hussein Onn, Selangor, pupil told StarEdu.
Leerthieka shared that beyond classroom learning, she hones her fluency by reading encyclopaedias and children’s books.
She also allocates time to improve her grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, composition and short essay-writing through workbooks and worksheets.
At weekends, her routine includes reading articles from The Star newspaper in which she pays attention to different writing styles while keeping herself up to date with the latest news.
Such keenness to improve her English proficiency, she said, began when she was a preschooler watching kid-friendly educational programmes online.
“I am interested in making online videos like other vloggers, so I make short videos at home to be viewed by my family using the English language and I try to speak like the vloggers,” she added.
The spelling bee of which she chose to be an online participant in November was her second international outing in 2022 – she had earlier taken part in an English language Olympiad, contesting as one of nine Malaysian finalists against pupils from all over the world.
The annual competition, organised by the Global Hippo Association, saw the participation of 67,748 students from 45 countries in the preliminary round, out of which only 183 qualified for the final round held in September.
In preparation for the CEFR-aligned Olympiad, in which she eventually placed 13th out of 28 contestants at the finals, Leerthieka said her mother bought her a set of six workbooks, as well as printed worksheets and exercises from websites.
“I spent one hour a day working on the exercises after finishing my schoolwork. At night, I practised my speaking skills with my family where we talked about the topics identified in the competition,” she recalled.
She added that she had opted for the Hippo 1 category, which was open to pupils aged 11 and under, instead of Little Hippo for her age group, as she had wanted to challenge herself. “I went for a higher level as I found the Little Hippo category slightly easy for me and it did not test essay-writing skills,” she said, adding that finalists were tested on their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, as well as use of the language. “I was sad when I did not win the Olympiad. I was disappointed with myself,” she shared.
But the Selangor lass has since bounced back from it with her sights set on another attempt at both competitions this year.
“I’ve learnt that if I worked hard, I could achieve anything I wanted and that it’s ok to make mistakes because through mistakes, I learn better. The mistakes I have made will stop me from repeating them,” she said.
“I would like to thank my family, teacher Patmaloschani Paramalingam, and all those who made my experience in both these competitions a memorable one,” she added.
Urging her peers to take part in such competitions, she said their participation will enable them to gain more confidence and experience.
“These competitions are fun and you can visit places abroad if you qualify,” she added.
Weng Sam, 20, a student in Pahang, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team. To join Star-NiE’s online youth community, go to facebook.com/niebrats.
